Page 52 of A Pirate's Pleasure
“You got that look again.”
“What look?”
“The one that scares me.”
I rolled my eyes. “And woe betide any man who scares Lief Cooper.”
“Exactly.”
We were nearly to The Navarino. I held up my hands, the chain rattling. “This is going to make climbing the rope ladder fun.”
“We’ll get them off you once we’re on board,” Whitby said. “Reckon we’re gonna need a bit of that wind power of yours to get us out of here fast if you’re up to it?”
I nodded, Whitby’s reminder making all four of us look to the sky as Stafford brought the small boat to a stop as close as he could get it to The Navarino. Apart from a few birds circling overhead, it was still clear. “Fuck,” I said, realization sinking in. “The birds will tell him.” I’d been so caught up in the exhilaration of escape that common sense had momentarily deserted me.
“I think the broken window will tell him,” Lief said drily. “Oh, and the fact that you’re not there to greet him when he gets home.”
“They’ll follow us.” Frustration had bled into my voice. Couldn’t they see how futile this was?
“What’s new?” Whitby said just as drolly. It seemed he and Lief had been spending a fair bit of time in each other’s company, enough for them to sound like the other.
“I’ll be putting you in danger.”
“You’re right,” Lief said after a pause, accompanying it with a nod. “We should row you back to the island and leave you there. You can tell bird face that a savage gust of wind broke the window, and that you just sat there as good as gold waiting for his return. No doubt he’ll gather you to his breasts, pat you on the head, and tell you how glad he is that a stray shard of glass didn’t hurt you.” Despite his words, his hand had settled at the small of my back, pushing me toward the edge of the boat. “Now get on the ladder before I say something I might regret. I don’t know what that deranged stalker has done to you, but I’m not liking this lack of self-belief.”
I eyed the stretch of water that lay between me and the bottom of the ladder. It wasn’t far, but it was far enough when your hands were bound and you were dragging a considerable length of chain. “I suppose you’ll just say this is a lack of self-belief on my part, but I’m going to say it, anyway. I’m going to sink like a rock if I try to swim.”
Whitby’s gaze dropped to the chain, and his lips quirked. “Funny. It was only the other day that West and I were saying that The Navarino could do with a new anchor. Didn’t think we’d find one quite this pretty, though. I’ll be the envy of all the other pirates. There goes Captain Brent, his beautiful ship The Navarino, and his anchor fashioned from the ex-captain.”
Cold, black fury coalesced in my chest. If I’d had magic at my disposal, no doubt a wind would have picked up, as it was wont to do when my emotions spiraled out of control. “It’s my ship and I’m the captain.”
“There he is,” Lief said with a smirk as he and Whitby slid into the water and both held out a hand. “Not dead after all. Just slumbering. If you’re the captain, you better get your arse back on board and tell the crew that. They’ve grown lazy without the threat of freak weather hitting them.”
I maneuvered myself over to the edge of the boat and eased myself into the relatively calm sea. Between the three of us, we made it over to the hull of The Navarino. Climbing the rope ladder proved difficult, but not impossible, Lief following in my wake and taking his fair share of the weight of the chain.
A cheer rang out as I heaved myself onto the deck of The Navarino. There was no time to revel in it, though, not with the threat of Lucretius still hanging over us. I held my manacled hands out in front of me as I addressed the crew. My crew. Being back on board was already making me feel more my old self. “Don’t just stand around gawping at me. I need someone who can get these off.” Another glance at the sky. Still clear, but how much longer would our luck hold?
It was West who ran over, my ship’s surgeon immediately getting to work on the problem without wasting time on greetings. He poked and prodded at the lock mechanism with a scalpel, making little tsking noises I didn’t much like the sound of. “Well?” I asked as a dripping wet Lief came to stand next to us. “Can you get them off me?”
“Undoubtedly,” he said, “but that’s not the question you should be asking.”
I frowned. “No?”
“No. You should ask how long it’s going to take to get them off.” I let out a sound close to a growl, West having the good sense not to make me actually ask it. “I can get them off, but it might take some time. It’s not a straightforward mechanism.”
“We haven’t got time,” Lief said. Whether it was the edge in his voice that had me jerking my head up, or the shadow that had passed across the sun as he’d said it, I couldn’t have said, but there was no mistaking the familiar dark shape in the sky heading our way.
“You have to get them off,” I said, “and you have to get them off now.”
A chorus of mutters ran round the ship, everyone’s gazes fixed on the dark shape as it grew steadily bigger. The crew drew their cutlasses, widened their stances, and prepared for a battle that I doubted they could win, as an uneasy silence fell across the ship. “West?” I urged when he said nothing.
“I’m trying.” A drop of sweat slid off his brow, chased by another as he worked at the lock, trying to jimmy it into opening. “It’s…” He released a string of insults so lurid that even the patrons of The Black Skull would have been embarrassed.
“Keep trying.” And all the while, the dark shape grew closer.
“On a scale of one to ten,” Lief said. “How pissed do you think he’s going to be at you trying to escape?”
“Fifty.”